KISSIMMEE, Fla. - The Embry-Riddle baseball team didn't leave much room for drama as the Eagles' methodical offense and the tremendous pitching of
Troy Naab gave Head Coach
Randy Stegall his 500th career victory on Tuesday night at Osceola County Stadium, a 10-1 drubbing of Tiffin. The Eagles (9-7) collected 16 hits while Naab didn't allow a run or hit after the first two batters he faced, mowing down the Dragons (2-8) with little issue.
A leadoff triple was followed by a double by the Dragons to start the bottom of the first as Tiffin took an early 1-0 lead, but Naab retired the next three batters quickly and the Eagles tied things up the next inning when
Cole Habig sacrificed himself on a bunt, allowing
Zach Howard to score from third after the former singled, moved to second on a wild pitch and then third on a fielder's choice.
Naab faced the minimum in the bottom of the second, the first of six three-up, three-down innings for the Eagle right-hander, and his team gave him a lead in the third when
Kirk Sidwell brought in
Kyle Guttveg on a ground out before a wild pitch scored
John Devine for a 3-1 ERAU lead.
Embry-Riddle added two more runs in the fifth, one in the sixth, two in the seventh and the final two tallies came in the eighth. Meanwhile, the only batter to reach base after the first inning against Naab was via a hit-by-pitch in the fifth.
A trio of Eagles collected a pair of RBIs in Sidwell, Habig and
Cody Forster, with Sidwell finishing 3-for-6 on the night. Howard, Guttveg and
Kyle Marsh each finished with two hits and two runs and
Max Clark and
David Romanowski combined for a scoreless ninth.
Naab (4-1) got the win or ERAU, going eight strong innings, allowing two hits, one run and striking out eight batters.
Stegall, in his 12th season at Embry-Riddle, claimed his 500th career victory in his 775th game (.646 winning percentage). After spending two seasons at Indiana Tech (69-44-2) in 2006-07, Stegall took the reins at ERAU prior to the 2008 season, and has guided the Blue and Gold to a 431-229 (.653) record over the last 13 years, including seven conference regular season titles, five conference tournament crowns and seven trips to the NAIA World Series prior to ERAU's NCAA II transition.
The Eagles hit the road this weekend to take on West Florida in a three-game set in Pensacola. ERAU and UWF will square off in a DH on Saturday, March 9 at 1 p.m. (CT) / 2 p.m. (ET) and then a single game on Sunday, March 10 at 1 p.m. (CT) / 2 p.m. (ET).
